Social Psychology

Question 1

What are the 3 themes of Social Psychology?

Answer 1

1) How people think about others.
2) How people influence others.
3) How people relate to others.

Question 2

Attribution

Answer 2

Beliefs one develops to explain human behavior and characteristics, as well as situations.

Question 3

Dispositional Attribution

Answer 3

Behavior assumed to result from traits or personality characteristics.

Question 4

Situational Attribution

Answer 4

Behavior assumed to result from situational factors.

Question 5

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 5

When judging other people’s behavior we overestimate the influence of dispositional factors and underestimate the influence of situational factors.

Question 6

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 6

An individual’s tendency to claim credit for their success, but deny blame for their failure.

Question 7

Attitude

Answer 7

Relatively stable thoughts, feelings, and responses toward people, situations, ideas, and things.

Question 8

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 8

The idea that humans dislike inconsistencies between their behavior and attitude.
Ex. You are against texting and driving, but you text while driving.

Question 9

What are 2 ways to reduce cognitive dissonance?

Answer 9

1) Change behavior
Ex. Stop texting and driving
2) Change attitude (more likely)
Ex. Convince yourself that texting and driving is not as bad as people say it is

Question 10

How do attitudes and behaviors influence each other?

Answer 10

Attitudes can influence our behavior.
Ex. Positive attitude toward smoking –> More likely to smoke
Behaviors can also influence our attitudes.
Ex. Engaging in unexpected or unusual behavior can change our attitude toward that behavior

Question 11

Describe Asch’s experiments on conformity.

Answer 11

A volunteer is told he is participating in a visual perception test. He doesn’t know all the other participants are actors who were told to answer incorrectly. The volunteer is monitored to see if he gives the correct answer or goes along with the opinion of the group. Eventually, he goes along with the group even if he didn’t agree.

Question 12

Conformity

Answer 12

The tendency to modify behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and opinions to match those of others.

Question 13

Normative Social Influence

Answer 13

Conforming to achieve acceptance.

Question 14

Informational Social Influence

Answer 14

Conforming to be correct.

Question 15

What effect does dissent have on conformity?

Answer 15

Conformity is less likely if at least one person goes against the group. Additionally, dissent can elevate the quality of group decision-making.

Question 16

Obedience

Answer 16

Changing behavior because we have been ordered to do so by an authority figure.

Question 17

Describe Milgram’s experiments on obedience.

Answer 17

A teacher (participant) was instructed to shock a student (actor) each time he answered a question wrong. The experimenter (authority figure) demanded the teacher to increase the voltage each time and continue with the experiment. This study showed that people will obey orders given by an authority regardless of how cruel they were.

Question 18

What factors increased obedience in Milgram’s experiments?

Answer 18

1) Perceived legitimacy of authority.
2) Psychological closeness to authority.
3) Psychological distance from victim.

Question 19

Interpersonal Attraction

Answer 19

The factors that lead us to form friendships or romantic relationships with others.

Question 20

What are the 3 principles of interpersonal attraction?

Answer 20

1) Proximity: We like people who are near us.
2) Similarity: We like others who are similar to us.
3) Reciprocity: We like others who like us.

Question 21

Mere Exposure Effect

Answer 21

The more we are exposed to someone or something, the more positive our reaction to it becomes.

Question 22

Stimulus Value-Role Theory

Answer 22

People look for compatibility in 3 stages:
1) Stimulus stage- age, appearance, and ethnicity
2) Value stage- attitudes and beliefs
3) Role stage- social roles

Question 23

Stereotypes

Answer 23

(Beliefs) Conclusions or inferences (positive or negative) we make about people based on their group membership, such as race, religion, age, or gender.

Question 24

Prejudice

Answer 24

(Attitude) Holding hostile or negative attitudes toward an individual or group.

Question 25

Discrimination

Answer 25

(Behavior) Showing favoritism or hostility to others because of their affiliation with a group.

Question 26

How does categorization contribute to prejudice?

Answer 26

Cognitive Explanation:
- People automatically categorize other people into groups before we get to know them.
- Exaggerate differences between groups (assume other groups are much different from our own and have more negative characteristics).
- Underestimate differences among outgroup members (we believe out-group members are all similar to each other).
- Leads to negative attitudes.

Question 27

How does social identity contribute to prejudice?

Answer 27

Motivational explanation:
Social Identity Theory
- People who socially identify with a group derive self-esteem in part from group membership.
- Self-esteem is maintained by comparing in-group favorably to outgroup (viewing their group as superior to feel better about themselves).
- Stronger ingroup identification associated with stronger outgroup prejudice (believe your group is better than another group to get a self-esteem boost).
- Studies who that when there is a threat to self-esteem, people are more likely to engage in prejudice.

Question 28

Describe methods for reducing prejudice according to research on the intergroup contact hypothesis.

Answer 28

Intergroup contact hypothesis: Interaction between groups will reduce prejudice if optimal conditions are met.
Optimal conditions for intergroup contact:
- Groups have equal status
- Absence of competition
- Presence of shared goals that require cooperation
- Support of authorities, laws, and customs
- Exchange of information that allows personal connections to be made